Megan Bartels and Wes Shelton

Megan Bartels and Wes Shelton's relationship began with a chance meeting. "We met at a party she crashed," he jokes. It was actually his going away party; he was being deployed to Iraq the following week. A West Point graduate, he is a Captain in the U.S. Army. At the time he was preparing for his second tour in Iraq.

She had moved to Memphis to attend Rhodes College and stayed after graduation to begin working as a financial analyst. It just so happened, one of her co-workers went to high school with Wes. "I got to know some his high school friends those first few years of working. We were all going to hang out one night, but then it turned out they had to go to a party. They told me it would be no big deal if I came along," she says of their first meeting.

The party ended up being a more intimate affair than she had anticipated. Wes's close friends and family were all in attendance to wish him a safe year away. "My friend and I were pretty out of place," she says, laughing. So the future couple met, but with his imminent departure, there wasn't an opportunity for a relationship to start.

Josh Winters, Wes's childhood best friend and groomsman, remembers that first meeting. "He said to me, ‘I'm going to ask her out when I get back.'

Wes was in the Middle East for a year, but after a few months away he "randomly" emailed Megan. "She nicely emailed me back," he says with a smile. They exchanged a few friendly emails over the months and, on his second night home on leave, the two ran into each other downtown. She came over to him and said hello, and he worked up the courage to ask her out to dinner. "I didn't know what to do. A good looking girl you like comes and says hi, and you freeze up!" After that, he saw her everyday of his two week leave.

"It was dating in fast forward," she says. Knowing their time was limited, Wes didn't want to spend an evening without her. On their third date, he took her to dinner with his parents. "I know it was quick, but it really didn't feel strange," she adds.

The two managed to forge a significant relationship in a very short time, but before long Wes was back on a plane to Iraq. Things seemed unclear at the time, and neither knew if the relationship would endure the separation. "The night before he left, he asked how we should approach this, and I said I didn't know," she says.

So they began trading emails. They ended up writing daily letters during his three month absence and were able to share an occasional phone call. The relationship flourished through the letters. "I felt like I got to know him better, actually. It seems weird, but you get to know someone better through letters, rather than sitting in a movie together," she says. He nods. By the time he returned they felt they were both in something serious.

Once he returned, it was as if they hadn't missed a stride. She came to visit him at Fort Campbell his first weekend home. "She came up to visit me a day after I got back."

But the couple still couldn't be together with ease. He was stationed at Fort Campbell in Tennessee, and then was moved to Fort Benning in Georgia and eventually to Fort Riley in Kansas. "He got progressively farther away!" she says. "We put a lot of miles on our cars in the last year and half."

"It was about a year ago that we started talking more long term," he recalls. "For me, spending time with her, from the beginning, was natural and easy. It was just comfortable."

When asked if she ever hesitated in their relationship, knowing her partner would be absent so often, she shakes her head. "It is hard to know this will be a way of life, not just when he's deployed, but day to day. But I'd never dated anyone who I was so confident in," she say.

Knowing he would be deployed again in the fall of 2010, he was already planning a proposal. He proposed Memorial Day weekend during a trip we took to D.C., without a bit of hesitation. "You know, I never had the opportunity to date much; I was too busy. I thought it would be awhile before I got married. Luckily, I was able to pull her into it," he jokes.

She was equally certain about their relationship and so was in some ways expecting a ring. "I wasn't terribly surprised," she says happily.

She immediately began planning the wedding, wanting to have time together as newlyweds before he was deployed. "The beginning of our relationship was hurried by the Army, and really our engagement was, too."

The couple married on February 6 at St. Mary's Catholic Church. They choose Central Station, the historic downtown train depot, as their reception site because of its classic Memphis feel and size. "What was most important wasn't how fancy everything was, but that we could invite all of our friends and extended family from different places. When we tallied those people up, it was north of 400," she says of the large wedding.

It was a traditional military wedding. The groom and all of the enlisted guests were in full uniform. The freshly married couple entered the reception hall to an applauding audience through an arch of sabers. Six of the groom's friends served as saber-bearers. There were seven bridesmaids and seven groomsmen, with each of their siblings in the wedding. The bride wore a cream dress with a full, bunched skirt that fell to the floor in layers.

The celebration was elegant, but comfortable. Maggie Sommer, Megan's college roommate and bridesmaid, thought the party was very appropriate for the couple. "The ceremony was beautiful – relaxed and happy, which was perfect for them."

Ruthann Shelton, mother of the groom, watches the couple share a dance and smiles. "We think they're a phenomenal pair. You could always tell, just by the looks on their faces. It was always right, from the very beginning."

Megan's mother, Diane, saw the same certainty. "She's very particular and was never one to be easily impressed. But when she brought him home, we could just tell he was the one. She seemed so sure."

After a honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico, the couple will settle in their new house in Manhattan, Kansas, not far from Fort Riley. "We're just excited about living in the same city!" he says.